When a throwaway song…isn’t

Posted on June 19, 2026June 19, 2026 by Mike 1 Comment

GREAT story from a great artist, the late, lamented Tom Petty.

Bugs, a roadie who’s been with us since the day we started, bought me this Yamaha keyboard. I said, Man, why’d you buy that? It’s expensive! He said, If you write one song on it, it’ll pay for itself. So he charged it for me and left it there.

Jeff Lynne was over one night and I started playing with it. I played…

[Petty hums the opening chords of Free Fallin’]

Jeff goes, Wait. What was that? Just play that first part over and over. Okay, I did. And Jeff’s just sitting there smiling and he says, Go on, sing something.

So just to make Jeff smile I sang, [in a nasal voice with an exaggerated Southern accent] She’s a good girl, loves her mama, loves Jesus, and America too… And Jeff said, That’s not funny, Tom, that’s really good. Keep going.

From there I wrote the first and second verses completely spontaneously. We were smart enough to have a cassette on.

Jeff said, Go up on the chorus, take your voice up a whole octave, what’ll that sound like? I said, What do I sing? Jeff said, I’m free falling. So I sang, I’m freeee… He said, Whoa, there’s power in that, that’s good.

I wrote the third verse after he left and brought it in and showed it to him the next day. It all fit together and we were really excited.

[After the song came out,] Axl Rose called and asked me, Where did you get that line about the vampires in the valley? When I’m driving I sometimes see these shadowy-looking people just off the sidewalks, around the post office. I always thought of them as vampires for some reason.

Proving once again the unimpeachable veracity of the old saw that every songwriter’s process is different. Back when I was hauling freight all over Hell and half of Georgia, I used to keep a small notepad and pencil right beside me for those not-rare occasions when inspiration would hit as I was choogling down the highway. Yessir, believe it or leave it, but some of the songs I’m proudest of were written from the driver’s seat of a Freightshaker, K-Whopper, or International Pro Sleeper.

New category: Inside the sausage factory.

The SIQ (Song in Question):

1 thought on “When a throwaway song…isn’t”

kennycan says:

June 19, 2026 at 5:18 pm

I absolutely loved that song when it came out and that chordal opening (on guitar for the song on the record) and Freeeeeeeeee absolutely nails it why…

Other Petty fave of lesser renown is Two Room Apartment

Another one is Yer So Bad

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